How long does Recuva need?

Recuva
1

Hello experts,

by a special program all datas of an extern disk drive were shot.

I remembered of the wonderful software Recuva and I´m trying to get the datas back.

Yesterday evening I started the program.

After about one hour the program has shown that it will need one hour fo the first step.

After two hours later there was written that it needs four hours.

After four hours there was shown 17 hours and now, 12 hours later the program needs 19 hours.

And this is shown since 5 hours!?

Can anyone help me and write what happens? Does it work or not? Could I have hope for repairing?

Kindest regards

Hammurabi

2

Hi Hammurabi, and welcome to the forum.

Not too much information to go on there.

How big is the hard drive you're scanning, are you using a "normal" or "deep scan"?

by a special program all datas of an extern disk drive were shot.

Can you be more specific as to what exactly happened to your hard drive, as it may be relevant to how you approach retrieving your data? Was it formatted, and if so was it a quick or full format?

Has the drive been damaged in some way which makes it inaccessible?

Any information you can provide, including your Operating System, would be of help.

3

Hello,

thank you for your help.

The reason of all were the following:

I have downloaded a program which is called AyRecovery.

They provided that it will be very easy to have a new system after a computer crash.

For me it was not easy because after installing the PC always has shown 4 diferent points from this damned program at every start of my PC. I could click where I wanted but the PC always returned to this 4 options.

Then i tried to bring the machine to the same form as I have got it with my 2 recovery cd´s.

But this wasn´t successful because the 4 options of AyRecovery were shown again.

Then I had some e-mail traffic with them and they have written that the mbr section has to be killed ( or like this ). I have another CD with programs created by Paragon. On this there were a function to set the mbr on 0.

Inadvertently I made a X for the second drive to kill the mbr.

Then the program started with a new mbr, all data on C:\ were killed, but all data on the second drive too.

The disk has 300MB and on it there were all my downloaded programs and private files.

At first with recuva I started a "normal" scan. This showed only 57 files. Most of them where EULA txt-files and nothing what I could utilize.

Then I started a deep scan and after some time of the beginning it showed that this scan will need more than 10 hours.

After about 5 hours I clicked on interrupting and Recuva showed me that there were more than 375000 files. More than 125000 of them are ignored.

With other programs like Recuva I had results of more than 700000 files!!!

This all would be not so tragically if I would have some good features. But I don´t see them at Recuva!? There is no "searching" or "mark all files", mark no file", "mark this screen", "go to the top" or "go to the bottom", search files as "*.exe" or "*.doc" and others like this.

It´s not realistic for me to find out the really necessary files for me. I don´t need all files back, but with some different find functions it woud be more helpful.

Kind regards

Hammurabi

4

After sending my message yesterday evening I started a new scan.

When about an hour was gone there were shown that it will need 10 hours.

In the early morning today the window showed 47% und 17 hours.

This is shown since about 5 hours and is exactly the result which I had 2 or

3 times before I have witten my first request.

I think it´s not possible for the program to work with such big data!?

Kind regards

Hammurabi

5

Hi Hammurabi.

Sorry for the delay in replying. Busy time of the year. :)

It's difficult to work out exactly what that program has done to your drives.

Is it a long while since you installed that program, and since that time, have you successfully been making "snapshots" of your drive/s with it?

Or have you installed it very recently?

Depending upon whether it's actually "restored" any "snapshots", or if it's simply screwed up the boot and partition records, your files may still be there, but windows won't find them because of the possibly corrupted boot and partition information.

With that in mind, go into Recuva's "Options\Actions" and check the "Scan for non deleted files" checkbox. Also (if it isn't already) go into "Options\General" and set the "View Mode" to "Tree View".

Then try a normal scan.

Post back your results, and we'll take it from there.

6

It takes as long as it takes,

especially if you have 1 TeraByte of free space that is filled with deleted files.

If you tell us the size of C:\ and its free space there are those here (but not me) who have the experience to guess a feasible time range.

After about 5 hours I clicked on interrupting and Recuva showed me that there were more than 375000 files. More than 125000 of them are ignored.

With other programs like Recuva I had results of more than 700000 files!!!

I have just Googled for AyRecovery and found

http://www.giveawayo...ecovery-lite-2/

Apparently it is not fit for Windows 7. What is your O.S. ?

There were 80 comments, many negative, on giveawayoftheday

AyRecovery refrains from preserving "My Documents".

I suggest most of the 375000 (or 700000) files could be snapshots of system files by AyRecovery ,

and even if you recuva a system file it needs installation - not simply copying to original location.

Are you focused on recuva of C:\,

or is the other 300 MB ( ? 300 GB ? ) drive of interest also.

Is your system running Recuva under Windows and still fully functional apart from the loss of a few "data files" and inability to revert to any earlier time ?

7

Hello,

thank yo for answering but it doesn´t help.

I think that the suggestion of Dany is write! But the result isn´t! It shows only 145 files.

I did so as Danny has written / Depending upon whether it's actually "restored" any "snapshots", or if it's simply screwed up the boot and partition records, your files may still be there, but windows won't find them because of the possibly corrupted boot and partition information.

With that in mind, go into Recuva's "Options\Actions" and check the "Scan for non deleted files" checkbox. Also (if it isn't already) go into "Options\General" and set the "View Mode" to "Tree View". ) before he has written this with the above result:

Only with a deep scan ( and this for me is very strange! ) I can get a lot of files, but not all!?

I have marked to repair all files on a separate folder on C:\ ( The lost files were on extern K:\ ).

When I have a look I see that there are many files and folders are not repaired ( The whole folder of my programs. ).

And this seems very strange because other programs like Recuva ( f. e. Stllar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery ) show more than 500000 files and not "only" 375000 as Recuva shows. I suppose that there are the missing files.

I don´t know now what I have to do. If I buy an expensive software it´s possible that tis has a bader result than Recuva. On the other hand where are the files Recuva doesn´t show?

Kind regards and Merr Christmas to all!

Hammurabi

8

Hi Hammurabi.

I'm getting confused as to what your situation is now.

There's probably a language issue here, but you are going to have to try and explain as clearly, and as briefly, as you can as to the exact situation you have.

Inadvertently I made a X for the second drive to kill the mbr.

Then the program started with a new mbr, all data on C:\ were killed, but all data on the second drive too.

The disk has 300MB and on it there were all my downloaded programs and private files.

I gather from the above that both your System Drive C:, and the external drive, which we now know is K:, have had new MBR codes written to them, which has screwed them up.

Do you mean by "All data killed" that you can't access the files on either drive?

If you did nothing more than damage the MBR of each drive, then the files are still there. In other words they haven't been deleted or overwritten with other data.

Or, using AyRecovery, have you tried to restore "Snapshots" of either or both drives in an attempt to put your files back, and this has failed and made things worse?

Which begs the question, what happened to both drives in the first place to cause you to use the AyRecovery program?

It's important to know exactly the sequence of events right from the time the problem first started. I have no idea what to suggest to help you as I have no clear picture as to what's happened. If any of the other members can clearly understand what you have done, then I'm sure they'll contribute to the topic.

Regarding your observation here ...

This all would be not so tragically if I would have some good features. But I don´t see them at Recuva!? There is no "searching" or "mark all files", mark no file", "mark this screen", "go to the top" or "go to the bottom", search files as "*.exe" or "*.doc" and others like this.

It´s not realistic for me to find out the really necessary files for me. I don´t need all files back, but with some different find functions it woud be more helpful.

It is possible with Recuva to target your search to files or file types, and to target the original location of those files using the "Tree View" setting.

Quick Start: If you know the file names:

Quick Start: Recovering files of a specific type (or in a specific location):

If you haven't restored any "Snapshots", and you have only messed up the MBR's of each drive, then you should probably be using a different method to get back your files, such as "Partition Recovery" software, or maybe booting your computer with a "Linux Rescue CD".

Some basic info would also help, as touched upon by Alan above.

Are you focused on recuva of C:\,

or is the other 300 MB ( ? 300 GB ? ) drive of interest also.

Is your system running Recuva under Windows and still fully functional apart from the loss of a few "data files" and inability to revert to any earlier time ?

Which operating system are you using (XP Vista Win7, 32 or 64bit), and how big are the drives you refer to?

Merry Christmas to you too Hammurabi. :)

9

Hammurabi,

In Recuva Options/Actions check the first three boxes. Then all the files will be shown. You don't have to rescan when you do this!

When you run a scan (normal or deep) you can cancel stage 2: this will save some time.

You can filter the results with the Filename or Path box, or sort the columns in order by clicking on the column header. You do NOT have to rescan when you do this filtering, and you can change the filter or sorting as much as you like.

You can mark all files by checking the box next to the Filename column header, or use this to check those you have filtered.

All this is in Advanced Mode, which I think you are running.

I hope this helps.

10

It would greatly ease language difficulty if you could use Disc Management to display the drives,

and take a screen shot and post to allow us to see what Windows sees.

I forget exactly how to get there with XP, and never bothered with Vista, but you may get clues from my example with Windows 7 :-

I click the bottom left corner "Start" which gives many options including "Computer"

I right click computer and select the option "Manage"

This gives me Computer Management and under "Storage" I select "Disc Management".

I took a screen shot and attached as an example

post-19700-0-86715100-1324582521_thumb.gif

11

Hello friends,

before I forget it: There must be changed something in handling this forum. I tried to answer the last comments and have written a lot. Then I had have a look on an answer of Augeas and when I wanted to to continue my answer this was no more present. And this was the second time.

I work with XP home 32 bit.

Each drive has 300MB.

Sorry, what Augeas has written is not true.

I tried all possible possibilities.

With a normal scan I get 145 files in most cases.

Only with a deep scan I get about 375000 files whereof 125000 were ignored.

Now I have marked all files to restore them.

At 1st I got the message that this will need 1 day, some later 2 days and an hour later 3 days.

In reality the action was ended in about 12 hours.

The separate folder which I had created shows that there were copied 408.748 files in 32.633 folders with a size of 236GB.

First question ( for me ): There were written that 375000 files are existing but the folder showes 408.748 files!?

Second question: Recuva shows 375.000 files, Easeus and others show much more than 500.000 files ( one shows more than 700.000! ). Why such a big difference and where are the files?

When have a look on the restored files I miss ( for example ) a very big folder with all of the programs I had, and I had a lot of them!

They are not reconstructed!?

Have a Merry Christmas and don´t eat and drink so much!

Hammurabi

12
Sorry, what Augeas has written is not true.

Which part is not true?

With a normal scan I get 145 files in most cases.

It is not possible for anyone to say how many files will be listed. Recuva in a normal scan will list the deleted file entries in the MFT. This could be any number.

Only with a deep scan I get about 375000 files whereof 125000 were ignored.

Did you check the first three boxes in Options/Actions? Is the Filename or Path box empty? If yes to both then Recuva should not ignore any files.

First question ( for me ): There were written that 375000 files are existing but the folder showes 408.748 files!?

Don't know without really knowing what you are doing.

Second question: Recuva shows 375.000 files, Easeus and others show much more than 500.000 files ( one shows more than 700.000! ). Why such a big difference and where are the files?

If you include the ignored files you will have 500,000 files. Recuva will only list files it recognises from the file signature. Other programs may use a different set of file signatures to match the files.

When have a look on the restored files I miss ( for example ) a very big folder with all of the programs I had, and I had a lot of them!

They are not reconstructed!?

Unfortunately Recuva cannot reconstruct what has been overwritten. If the folder path has been destroyed then the files may still be found listed under C:\?\

I assume you are recovering the files to a folder on another drive?

13

Hammurabi, you could help yourself a lot if you help us a bit more.

You're not answering the questions we're asking you, and from my point of view I can't make any positive suggestions if you don't provide the information I need.

I can reply to this statement ...

When have a look on the restored files I miss ( for example ) a very big folder with all of the programs I had, and I had a lot of them!

If you are talking about programs installed on your computer, you simply cannot recover them by any means. Each program will have files and folders installed to different locations, not counting the data installed to the registry. It just can't be done.

Are you listing and trying to recover every single file on your drive, or, as suggested to you above which you haven't confirmed, have you set Recuva up to display a "Tree View" so that you can target just the files you want to recover?

I'll step back from this one for the moment, as I can't really suggest anything positive.

EDIT: Ninja'd. Didn't see your reply Augeas, but I think we're on the same page more or less.

14

I work with XP home 32 bit.

Each drive has 300MB.

The separate folder which I had created shows that there were copied 408.748 files in 32.633 folders with a size of 236GB.

A 300 MB drive is 5 times too small to meet the minimum size for XP Home

You probably mean 300 GB which is 1000 times larger than 300 MB

A screen shot of your disc management would give us much more accurate information on your system.

It would also provide much more information and reduce the number of detailed questions you may have to answer.